


When They Come For You (They Will Have To Go Through Me)

by BasicallyAnIdiot



Category: Naruto
Genre: BFFs, Gen, I need more women supporting women, Kushina is going to burn the council down, Mikoto will help, Minato didn't make it, Post-Kyuubi Attack, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26083627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasicallyAnIdiot/pseuds/BasicallyAnIdiot
Summary: Konoha would rebuild.Mikoto wasn't as sure that Kushina would too.
Relationships: Uchiha Mikoto & Uzumaki Kushina
Comments: 9
Kudos: 95





	When They Come For You (They Will Have To Go Through Me)

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this came from, but I hope you all enjoy anyway. 
> 
> Next Chapter of 'Roar Little Lion Cub' is in progress. : D

**When They Come For You (They Will Have To Go Through Me)**

Konoha would rebuild.

Mikoto knew this. The will of fire burned bright, even in the face of their near total destruction. Soon the other villages would begin circling, smelling blood in the water as the Great Village licked its wounds and recovered, if they hadn’t already. Even now, there was a stubborn grimness to the survivors as they moved beams and stone. 

She was not sure the same could be said for her friend. 

The apartment, chosen for its relative proximity to the Tower and its merits of not being the Hokage Manor, was dark when she arrived. Neither hide nor hair had been seen of the occupant in the three days since the attack. Curtains drawn shut, and wards flared with power- with her Sharingan the apartment just about glowed with energy. Someone had gone to a great deal of effort to keep the world out. 

Something roiled in her stomach, bitter in acidity. She should have been here sooner. Should have been quicker to disobey the orders that kept the Uchiha back from the front lines. It had been everything she had to make it to her friend- and nowhere near enough. 

Releasing her kekkei genkai, Mikoto knocked quietly. Nothing. 

She knocked again, louder this time. 

Nothing. 

Biting her lip hard enough to bleed, Mikoto swiped the droplet of blood from her bottom lip with her thumb and pressed it into a cleverly hidden keyseal on the door handle. This was as much an emergency as any other. Using a key, she unlocked the door and stepped in before the wards closed again. She’d rather not find out what Minato had gotten up to in his applied seal studies. 

Minato. Oh Minato. A name that clenched her heart. She hadn’t been fast enough to do anything for him. What a failure of a kunoichi she had been- not seeing the deception of the council order quicker, only arriving in time to startle the Kyuubi into staying still the long moment it took her Hokage to seal the beast. 

Fast enough to see the whirl of a Sharingan in a demon’s eyes, a pattern she had never seen before, and not much else. 

The apartment was silent as a grave. No hint of life to be found. Mikoto stepped lightly. She had failed her Hokage but she would not fail her friend. 

Moving down the hallway, she checked each room as she passed. The bathroom, clean and neat; a closet half filled with towels, half-filled with spare bottles of ink and paper; a child’s bedroom with an empty crib, full of frogs and little suns and whirlpools; an office, its desk neat and tidy except for a single brush that had rolled off the ink pad, the lone window faced the Tower. It left only the last room. The master bedroom. 

Worry joined the guilt pooling in her stomach. If she had been an intruder intending to do harm this would have been all too easy. Her friend was a jounin- if anything had happened to her, there should have been signs of a fight. A struggle. The only way someone could normally take down Uzumaki Kushina was loudly. Violently. 

But Mikoto had seen her friend’s eyes when Minato fell. It was like she had watched her friend break in slow motion, when the rage tempered into stillness. A stillness never before witnessed in Kushina. 

This was Kushina though. She wouldn’t just give-up. It wasn’t in her dictionary. She wouldn’t-

Mikoto gently swung the door open, scanning the dark room. Someone had closed the curtains in here as well. The lump under the blankets was the only thing out of place. “Kushina?” No movement. 

“Kushina. It’s Mikoto. I’m coming closer.” She stepped closer, catching a glimpse of bright, blood red hair spilling out from under the comforter. Pulling back the blanket, she had her first good look at her friend since everything they had ever known was flipped upside down. 

Vacant. It was the only word that came to mind. Violet-grey eyes stared unseeingly at the little bundle her friend had curled around. Still wearing the clothes from the battle, blood, dirt and all. Only the slow rise and fall of the woman’s shoulders’ confirmed her life. The bundle, Mikoto realized, was a baby. With a happy tuff of blond hair she had seen a hundred times on his father. A snub of a nose wrinkled at the cool air, wrinkling chubby cheeks and the three whisker marks on either side of his face. As if Kushina needed any more reminders of that night. 

Mikoto inhaled sharply, and rather regretted it. “You both need a bath. Let’s start with you, Kushina.” 

Manhandling Kushina out of bed to the bathtub was easy. Even if she hadn’t been active duty in years, Mikoto was no fool- an attack could come at any time. Now her preparation allowed her to handle her friend as if she was a life sized doll. Stripping her quickly and efficiently, Mikoto set her limp friend in the tub. The clothes were deemed unsalvageable and tossed into the garbage. Next, she went back and brought the baby in and gently set him in the sink. Close enough for her leap back to if needed. Blissfully, the baby dozed on. Was he still tired from the sealing?

Kushina had pulled herself into a ball, knotted and clumped hair falling around her. Good. There was still signs of life. Mikoto could fan those flames until her friend recovered. 

Pulling down the shower head, adjusting the water until it was slightly warmer than tepid, Mikoto carefully began showering her friend. Muddy water tinged red ran down the drain. A handful of leaves had to be pulled away at one point, but within minutes the water was running clear. Turning off the water, Mikoto grabbed a bottle of shampoo and gently started massaging it into the crimson strands. Where she could, she worked the knots out, and where she couldn’t she left. 

Turning the water back on, she rinsed the shampoo away. She repeated the process with the conditioner. Once satisfied, Mikoto turned off the water and wrapped her friend in the fluffiest towel she had been able to find. When tanned skin was dry, she turned her attention to the hair. Drying it took significantly longer and in the end, Mikoto wrapped it all up in a towel while she tracked down pajamas. 

Changing Kushina into pajamas was just as easy as stripping her. Mikoto left her sitting on the floor as she repeated the bathing process with the baby using a damp sponge. The babe somehow slept through it all- must have been a side effect of the sealing. She hadn’t understood half the symbols on the child’s navel as she gently cleaned chubby limbs. Wrapping the child up, putting on a fresh diaper, she brought both of them to the kitchen. 

The cupboards were just shy of bare. On the counter and in the fridge a handful of vegetables were on their last legs. It was luck that had Mikoto’s fingers brushing against packets of instant ramen noodles. Kushina had often complained to her that she was craving the stuff during her last trimester. Not the proper stuff either- the instant packets. 

There wasn’t much in the fridge. A couple of eggs, a few vegetables that looked better than the rest- yes, Mikoto could make something of this. Kushina had been sat at the table. The vacant stare of her’s was unwaveringly on the steam rising from the cup of green tea in her hands. Mikoto moved a small bassinet into the kitchen and set the baby into it.

The Uchiha moved through the kitchen like she cooked there everyday, cutting vegetables, boiling water, and preparing the eggs. Finally, she set a bowl of slightly fancier instant ramen in front of her friend then turned back to preparing a bottle of milk for the baby. Normally, she would have let the babe sleep- but with Kushina so out of it and the baby so quiet, Mikoto did not want to risk the child going without a meal. 

She regretted the decision almost immediately. Blue eyes blinked at her once before he started crying. The boy had inherited his mother’s lungs and the wailing put Sasuke’s to shame as Mikoto steadfastly did not wince under the brunt of it. 

Tanned hands plucked the baby from her grasp. Mikoto blinked and looked to her friend. Kushina was not smiling, but the vacant gaze of her eyes had faded as she methodically adjusted her pajama shirt to let the baby feed. The ramen bowl hadn’t been touched. 

Some of the worry eased regardless. There was much she could do with an ember. 

The hoarseness of her friend’s voice surprised her. “We were attacked.”

Mikoto said nothing, and pushed the mug of tea closer to Kushina. The Uzumaki kept a hold on her baby, and managed a slow sip from the tea. Her voice still cracked as she continued. “Mina- He- we weren’t prepared for this enemy. Nothing we did could touch him.” What Kushina said next turned Mikoto’s blood cold, “He had the Sharingan.” 

With a deep breath, Mikoto waited to see if Kushina would say anything else. Only when the silence stretched did the Uchiha Matron speak. “We were instructed by the village council to remain in our compound. To my understanding. I was the only Uchiha who broke that rule.” 

Kushina nodded slowly. She swallowed and looked down at her nursing baby. “We were set-up.” 

“It certainly looks that way.” Apparently not just her. Mikoto frowned. “Whoever it was was strong enough to control the Kyuubi. Just as Uchiha Madara once accomplished before the Shodai put an end to his madness.” 

“They took Minato from me.” Kushina looked up, meeting Mikoto’s eyes squarely and the rage Mikoto had been expecting finally showed its face. Crimson bled into cerulean, like blood staining water. “I’m going to make them pay.” 

“We,” Mikoto corrected gently, “We will make them pay. For our fallen Hokage. For falsely implicating my family. For attacking our home. Whether these enemies are in the village or outside our walls, they must be stopped.” 

Kushina’s grin wasn’t the happy one of Mikoto’s memories. It didn’t quite reach her eyes but the tips of fangs pressed against her bottom lip. “I’m going to be the one to kill them.” 

“Naturally.” Mikoto agreed easily. “But first. Eat. If we have to concern ourselves with enemies within the village we need to move carefully so we don’t alert them. That will take time and there’s no sense doing it on an empty stomach.” 

“You’re the best.” The grin widened. Still not enough to cover the mourning in Kushina’s eyes, the loss she had experienced, but reassuring enough that Mikoto could start sleeping at night again. The ember was there; Kushina would survive and so too would her son. 

She would grow stronger; Mikoto would make sure of that.  


**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'hi' on [Tumblr](https://basicallyanidiot.tumblr.com/)


End file.
